Thank you to volunteer Graham from his report from last weekend, together with some fantastic photos!
Despite the rain the songbirds were in full voice on Sunday morning. At Fattengates Courtyard a Nightingale was singing loudly from a fairly high perch in the middle distance when I was joined by Anna’s group who were doing a Birdsong Masterclass event. After the group had moved on the bird approached quite closely for a short while, giving me the opportunity to get a couple of reasonable photos.
As I left Fattengates I met the visitor who had found a Grasshopper Warbler in Adder Alley so I made straight for Adder Alley where I failed in my quest for some ‘Gropper' action.
Having previously bypassed both West Mead and Winpenny Hides I decided to retrace my steps back to West Mead, from where some Tufted Duck and a pair of Pochard had been reported. When I got there the Pochard pair were showing reasonably well but were fairly distant. However, some of the Tufted ducks, of which there were at least five, were fairly close to the hide, giving the opportunity for some photos.
As usual the nesting Lapwings were engaged in regular aerial action with other species, including a Black-headed Gull.
As I left West Mead Hide I met Janet who had come out on the Wetland Trail following her morning stint at the Welcome Hut. Together we made our way to Adder Alley. At the large scallop we found a Dark-edged Bee-fly and a few bumblebees including this Common Carder Bee.
Nearby a Common Whitethroat made its presence very obvious, singling and calling loudly, and posing nicely for a couple of photos.
Before we could spend any time on trying to establish if the Grasshopper Warbler was still in the area the first drops of what promised to be a heavy shower started to fall, and we took shelter in Little Hanger Hide. Whilst there I took the opportunity to get my final shot of a Long-tailed Tit that perched briefly in front of us.
Note from Anna: Since Graham visited us at the weekend, a couple of broods of lapwing chicks have hatched - best seen from West Mead or Winpenny Hide. One of the mothers is a bird who hatched at the reserve in 2018 and was colour-ringed as a chick - it's great to see that she has come back here to breed.
It's also been a good week for migrating wading birds with sightings of Whimbrel, Greenshank, Ringed Plover and Wood Sandpiper. Most of the wader action seems to be taking place near Winpenny Hide at the moment.
Whilst our main focus at this time of year at the songbirds and our breeding waders we've also been visited by some rather larger birds over the week; we continue to get visits from the White-tailed Eagles and also from the White Storks (presumably from the re-introduction programme at Knepp Estate). Visitor Dan Sayers took this great photo of one of the White Storks.